DEMS ON TRIAL

Thursday, 14 December 2006

When Odysseus and his men first encountered the Cyclops they were at first awed by his size and wealth but then quickly found themselves enslaved and subject to his whims, rage and horrible appetites. The towering beast seemed invincible and unstoppable. But his vision was freakishly narrow. They blinded him and once blinded, despite his size and strength, the Cyclops was rendered helpless and was easily defeated by a cadre of little men.

How fitting that such an apt metaphor would come to us from Greek mythology as we play out this horrible Greek tragedy in Iraq.

And our own blindness is no less crippling than that of the legendary Cyclops.

Washington and most Americans long ago lost their vision and the sense to see.

And lacking vision and purpose, the United States military has also been reduced to a helpless and vulnerable blind giant. If you can take off your own blinders for just a bit, it's easy to see the truth. The facts are there. Considering our vast reach and power, how is that the world is in such chaos and confusion? And when you examine the facts, you must also consider the question: Are we a democracy or are we the largest military empire the world has ever seen? And more importantly can we be both? Is democracy compatible with Imperialism?

Facts, not opinion, not judgments:

The United States spends almost as much on its military ($466 billion annually) than all other countries combined ($500 billion annually.) As a result our economy is almost entirely based on Imperialism and militarism. (By the way, the $466 billion figures does not include the supplemental billions allocated for the Iraq war.)

The American public is almost daily sold on the threat of foreign militarism. In fact, compared to the $466 billion we spend each year on our military muscle, China spends $65 billion, Russia spends $50 billion, France comes in at number four, spending $46.5 billion. Pacifist Japan spends $44.7 billion. Oil rich axis of evil Iran spends $9.7 billion. As an outside observer, which country would you fear? Which country would you assume is the world's biggest military threat?

And just how big is the American Empire? In fact it dwarfs the Roman and British Empires. It's not easy to assess the actual number of American military facilities around the globe but our own government admits to having over half a million soldiers and support staff deployed around the world in approximately 700 U.S. military bases in about 130 countries. This is not counting the 6,000 bases in the United States and its territories

Based on these numbers alone, but what definition and in what reality are we anything other than a vast military empire?

The frightening truth is that nations driven by the Imperial impulse always fall. And the cause are often quite similar: corruption and bitterness at the center, over-extended and relentlessly challenged resources, and loss of purpose and colossal hubris.

And surely, hubris, as has been the case with all empires, is our greatest vulnerability. Empires believe that they represent the highest standard of law, morality, ethics and civilization; all other nations and peoples are either pale imitations of the Empire or they are unruly barbarians. Hubris also cripples an empire's ability to make critical course corrections and seek remedies to domestic and foreign crises--even when those remedies are well within the empire's means.

In fact, our blindness is breathtaking in its scope. Bush and Iraq are just the most horrible and most recent incarnations of our Imperial disease.

Perhaps the most damning example of this blindness is our great act of self-deception based on the ridiculous myth that we've never lost a war. To believe this is like believing that the Democrats won the recent midterm election due to their own brilliant strategy rather than the complete and utter failure of the Republicans due to corruption and gross incompetence.

In fact, since the American Revolution, the United States has never actually won a war. We've achieved stalemates and compromises up against empires that were themselves overextended. We stepped in and cleaned up messes left by other empires that pushed themselves far beyond their means. It's a horrible and painful thing to say or consider, but the reality is that other than focusing endless resources at already exhausted enemies we have never gone against an equal and prevailed.

But we are stubbornly blind to this reality. Perhaps the most obvious example of this to anyone but an American is World War II. The history books tell us that the Japanese government knew it had lost the war on the day it invaded Pearl Harbor. Tokyo knew that it lacked the resources to wage war on a global level and gambled that the United States would retreat behind it's oceans. If Hitler had negotiated a peace with Britain and the Soviets after the fall of France and turned his attention to securing his Pan-European empire, Germany would have bought the time to build a fleet of the world's first fighter jets, giving it an invincible air force and Germany would have been one of two nations to have had the bomb in the late 1940s. But hubris and madness drove Hitler to overextend himself and deplete his resources to the extent where the United States was able to roll over the scorched earth of Europe and declare victory in less time than it's taken us to reach our current point in Iraq.

But our enemies today are well-funded, well-resourced and passionately committed to their cause. So the little men are growing fiercer by the day and flexing their little muscles fearlessly because they know the blind giant is flailing about, almost aimlessly. Yes, the blind giant is still a terrible thing to see, quite loud and quite large, but it lacks the vision and the resources to stop the little men, Iran, North Korea and the Taliban among them. It simply can't see and its violently swinging club is easy to avoid.

But unlike the wounded and blinded Cyclops, the United States still has the power to repair itself, but does it have the ability to "see?"

The history lessons are clear to see if one chooses to look. And the opportunities for change and survival are abundant. But can we push past our arrogance and the war on our moral and ethical center waged by ignorance incarnate in the evangelical hordes? Can we use our resources to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and cure the sick rather than relentlessly bomb them in the bizarre and insane belief that chaos and slaughter will sell them on "American democracy?"

As Democrats rally behind the Iraq Study Group Report, I fear that the hubris has spread far beyond the White House and the Republicans. How can any one of us really think that a report out of Washington that is based on American-dictated marching orders for the Iraqi people, Iraqi political and religious leaders and the governments of Iran and Syria will be taken seriously or in any way implemented by any of the parties concerned? Other than the ability to slaughter people and sacrifice increasing numbers of our troops to death and mutilation, we have exhausted all credibility, diplomatic currency and influence of any sort.

Hubris. Our crippling inability to admit to tremendous blunders and obvious defeat will just drag us deeper and deeper into a future of calamity and national anguish.

We must withdraw from Iraq as quickly as possible and we must make reparations as generously as possible If we stay, the Arab world will come after us. If we leave without making humble apologies and reparations, the Arab world will come after us. Why should their thirst for revenge be any less passionate than our own post 9/11. We've walked into a Sicilian world of vendetta and the only way out is humility and contrition.

Our resources should be used to feed, shelter and educate; the alternative is the way of all empires: ruin and history books.

Unlike the Cyclops of Homer's Odyssey, we are not yet been condemned to an eternity of blindness, our vision can be restored and we can actually become the benevolent giant that we imagine ourselves to be. But we must stop thinking of ourselves as the center of the universe. No matter how hard the Catholic church tried to suppress science and fact, the truth that the world is not flat prevailed. And no matter how hard the United States tries to suppress the self-determination of the rest of the world, the truth that the world is a diversity of legitimate cultures and philosophies will also prevail. We can participate in that diversity or we can go the way of Ozymandias.

Monday, 27 November 2006

During Saturday's weekly Democratic radio address, incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said that one of the first things the new Democratic majority will change is to bring accountability to government.

During this radio address he also said that the Iraqis must take responsibility for the current chaos in Iraq. "In the days ahead, the Iraqis must make the tough decisions and accept responsibility for their future."

So the Democrats are going to make the Iraqis accountable for the ongoing horror in Iraq?

I would have thought that accountability would mean impeachment for Bush, the funny farm for Cheney and reparations for Iraq from Congress.

But clearly I'm confused.

We invaded their country and destroyed their government including all civil and social services. We laid waste to their basic infrastructure leaving them with little water, intermittent electricity and an almost complete inability to feed themselves. We turned their middle and upper classes and the professional, educated and business classes into refugees, causing tens of thousands of them to flee the country and live in exile.

We've fueled a civil war and gutted all systems and organizations in support of law and order. We've opened their borders to a flood of foreign terrorists and Iranian and Syrian funded mercenaries and we've installed a puppet regime that endures for no reason other than American fire power.

And one of the Democrats' first public statement as the majority party on this situation is to announce that it's up to the Iraqis to fix this mess because the United States only has just so much patience? There's nothing like threatening our own puppet regime to rally determination and unity among the Iraqis people.

Wow. I need to take a refresher course on the concept of accountability.

Tuesday, 21 November 2006

With each day that George W. Bush allows his pride to get in the way of an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, more human lives are lost and America's reputation slips further into a state of disrepair.

Invading Iraq in the first place was a colossal mistake for America and the world and nothing positive is to be gained by our continued presence in that forlorn land. We have two choices at this point: withdraw and hope to regain some dignity on other fronts or stay the course adding insult to injury hourly and exponentially.

The only mission that was accomplished in Iraq was to divert billions of taxpayer dollars to a small cabal of corporations and families associated with Bush and Cheney. And the Administration's primary reason for staying the course is to continue the cash flow to the likes of Haliburton.

As a nation we have lost this war--not that it was ever remotely winnable by any sane measure.

Furthermore, Congress must impeach the President for lying to the nation about his reasons for invading Iraq, torture, betraying his oath of office and leaving the Geneva Conventions. To not do so would be to permanently cripple our system of checks and balances. The message to future Presidents will be that you can violate constitutional law, international law and the Presidential oath of office with absolute impunity. To not impeach Bush establishes a legacy of abusive and authoritarian Presidential power that surely means the end of our representative democracy.

Withdrawal from Iraq will not end the chaos; that will have to play itself out over several months and possibly years in a bloody conflict that we have caused and cannot prevent. At its conclusion, most of Iraq will fall under the Iranian sphere of influence, the Kurds will have declared independence and like Afghanistan, large regions of what was formerly Iraq will be left to outlaws and bullies.

The simple truth is George W. Bush:

raped the American taxpayers to financially benefit his friends,

abused his power.

caused the loss of tens of thousands of innocent human lives--including American troops,

further destabilized the Middle East,

did permanent damage to the integrity and credibility of freedom and democracy,

generated a substantial escalation in anti-American hostility and

destroyed the nation of Iraq.

We owe it to common decency, morality, the rule of law, the future of this nation and the credibility and viability of democracy to bring Bush to account for his misdeeds. Some Democrats, including Pelosi claim that to impeach the president would further the polarization and destabilization of this nation . She couldn't be more wrong. To not impeach the President will result in exactly that and worse.

Thanks to the Bush years, we now live in a nation where people who believe in the Constitution and the rule of civil and human rights are fringe dwellers, mockingly labeled as "liberals." If this is not fixed--and it still can be--America will devolve into a Religious Fundamentalist autocracy no different from Iran and the dream incarnate founded in 1776 will have run its course. And perhaps that is the will and the final choice of the people, a people mostly tired of freedom and the responsibility of making intelligent and informed decisions.

Yesterday's news was full of bizarre solutions to the Iraqi problem as American politicians and generals scramble around the barnyard like chickens just this side of the spit. Formerly sane John McCain wants to send in more troops. Duncan Hunter wants to create a wall of Iraqi troops between the violence and American troops. Charles Rangel and Jesse Jackson want to reinstate the Draft to scare Congress into a withdrawal. Carl Levin says we should start pulling out our troops within four to six months.

In the meantime, the head of the Iraqi government is planning to meet this Saturday with our enemies, Suuni Syria and Axis of Evil Shiite Iran to discuss how they can help him end the violence in American-occupied Iraq and get Sunnis and Shiites to stop killing each other. Ahmadinejad may be an awful person, but he's sadly a lot smarter than Bush. I know. Who isn't?

It's kind of like the the Marx Brothers meets the Keystone Cops meets Feydeau--with a great big dose of Sweeney Todd. Let's face it, the show is a huge flop. Bring down the curtain and shoot the author.

As a nation we cannot afford to let the sin of pride prevent us from doing the right thing--and that applies to the President, Congress and the American people. And the right thing is to apologize to the world, withdraw as quickly and as politely as possible, make financial reparations and impeach the worst President this nation have ever had to endure.

Monday, 20 November 2006

The day after the Bush--controlled Pentagon likened homosexuality to dyslexia and bed-wetting, two leading House Democrats declared their intention to reverse the 13-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy and end discrimination against gays and lesbians in the American military as soon as Congress comes under Democratic control in January.

It's a daring move and, to be honest, I'm not sure the timing is wise. As I've said before, a Democratic Congress must make serious progress on solving the Iraq crisis and fast before they kick up a storm over social issues that irk the conservatives and the Evangelicals. With an Iraq success under their belt, the Democrats can change the world and swiftly move this nation back into a leadership role in the global fight for freedom, democracy and civil and human rights.

I truly believe that radical reversals in government policies like "don't ask, don't tell" in the absence of major progress in Iraq will allow the Republicans to not only retain the White House in 2008, but to also recapture control of Congress for the GOP.

The war against institutionalized homophobia is vital to the sanity and well-being of this nation, but the Democrats need some political currency before they invest in such a controversial and divisive issue. And the fact is that they really have NO political currency at the moment. Their victory was based on the fact that the Republicans ran out of political currency and in fact drove themselves in bankruptcy.

Iraq must come first for so many reasons. Lest we forget, the majority of voters in seven critical states voted against Republicans because of Iraq, but still voted for gay marriage bans.

Monday, 13 November 2006

It would be very easy to succumb to complacency post the recent election. The Republican Party betrayed and raped this nation--leaving many of us sick to our stomachs and embarrassed to be Americans.

But thanks to a slim majority of a minority of Americans who bothered to vote on November 7, the Democrats have taken control of Congress and the Governorships.

The taste of celebration and self-congratulation in the air has been exceedingly and deliciously palpable. It was as if you could hear a nationwide sigh of relief accompanied by some sort of collective mass pat on the back.

But the painful and brutal truth is that we are still responsible for the terrible and abominable mistakes, misdeeds and lies of the past six years, and simply firing a bunch of politicians does not make it all go away. The November 7 Democratic victory does not miraculously excuse this nation from the terrible terrible mess we've made.

Rumsfeld may soon be indicted by a German court for crimes against humanity while the White House is discussing a possible medal. And Pelosi and other Democratic leaders are all forgive and forget. No impeachment. No investigations. No accountability for constitutional crimes, crimes against humanity and wide scale violations of international law and international treaties. I suppose it's the Christian thing to do; turn the other cheek?

Unfortunately, a rightfully outraged Islamic world sees this differently and will continue to clamor for justice. They will understandably expect more than some bland chatter about an end to bipartisanship. The horrors of 9/11 did not make George W. Bush less of an idiot. The elections of 11/7 did not make him less of a criminal and for us to pretend otherwise is a betrayal of law and even our national soul.

I am full of hope that Nancy Pelosi and a Democratic Congress can do great things but it will take inspiration, leadership, courage, risk-taking and uncompromising integrity.

And that's were things get scary.

Democrats won because a sufficient number of voters voted to fire the Republican party. As a result many good leaders were cast aside because of their Republican affiliation and many mediocre and even some moronic politicians are now in Congress simply because of their Democratic affiliation.

The very big question is whether or not the Democrats will deliver a responsible and visionary government so critically vital to our survival, or will we see a Democratic party pandering to the lowest common denominator in order to win the White House in 2008?

Hillary Clinton is a competent professional bureaucrat who gets non-controversial things done. Her 2008 candidacy is based solely on her gender and her husband. Look beyond her "celebrity" and you'll find a competent but boring professional lacking the vision, courage and leadership that this nation so desperately needs.

On the other hand, a fiery, courageous visionary, Russ Feingold has withdrawn this past weekend from the presidential race because he doesn't want to waste his time on a "long shot."

And that is the point in a proverbial nutshell. Politicians with vision and courage are long shots. Politicians who challenge the fewest number of people and apparently stand for very little are the front-runners.

Feingold stands firmly for his beliefs. Clinton shuffles between maybe and could be.

In the meantime American troops are dying almost daily and hundreds more are being mutilated for life while our politicians do lunch and exchange endless pleasantries as if nothing is wrong.

In the meantime, every few seconds a new Islamic suicide bomber is born because the United States lives in a world where we believe ourselves to be above the law, above morality and above justice.

The other day some Al Qaeda crazy said that he won't stop until the White House is in flames. Figuratively speaking, isn't that what the Democrats should be saying? Instead they're looking forward to working with the President and his administration because on November 8, George W. Bush woke up a constitution-loving, compassionate and humane man.

Our government is broken and our national soul is in grave peril. Hugging and kissing the men and women who brought us to this point is not going to fix anything. Oh, it might win a popularity contest but contrary to the conventional wisdom this isn't about making friends. And this surely isn't about healing wounds between Democrats and Republicans, this is about saving a critically ill patient: America. When a patient is rushed to the ER with a flesh-eating bacteria, what doctor immediately invites the bacteria to lunch?

Rumsfeld, Delay, Foley, Frist, Allen, Sherwood, Hastert, Ney: this nation has had enough of politicians who smile and shake hands by day and screw us by night.

We've been living in a country where the powerful House Majority Leader, Tom Delay poses for mugshots with a smile on his face and the nation is mostly indifferent.

Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leadership must understand that while nice is nice, we're sick of smiles and even more sick of mugshots. It is time for scowling and brutal honesty. Smiling Speakers are crazy criminals, not inconvenienced national leaders. Bigots are bigots, not Christians. Thieves are thieves, not lobbyists. Liars are liars, not Presidents.

And leaders are visionaries with courage, not the lowest common celebrity denominator.

Men and women like Russ Feingold should be our front runners and Hillary Clintons should be the long shots. We must urgently ask ourselves why courageous visionaries are presidential long shots.